Friday, 15 April 2016

Flying with Norwegian Air Shuttle (Part 2: ARN-HEL)

Welcome to my Part 2 of my flying experience with Norwegian Air Shuttle!

*Most photos are credited to the respective photographers from airliners.net

Hope you find the information below useful!

Introduction

I had a great first flight from London Gatwick to Stockholm Airport, you can check out the trip report over here. When I did the booking, I had a few choices of transit: Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo. Since, I flew from Helsinki to Oslo and from Oslo on the previous day with Blue1 and SAS, it was a choice between Copenhagen and Stockholm. I chose Stockholm in the end as I wanted to have a glance of Sweden, always have a soft spot for this country. Despite the delay, I had a 4 hours transit at Stockholm Airport, I decided to head out of the air side to check out the land side and take some photos.

History of Stockholm Arlanda Airport

Stockholm Arlanda Airport is an international airport in Stockholm, Sweden, located 37 km north of the city and is the largest airport in the country. There are 2 airports in Stockholm, this airport and Stockholm-Bromma which is located north-west of the city. This airport is a major hub for Nextjet, SAS and Norwegian Air Shuttle. Opened in 1962 - the official opening of the airport, it was used for intercontinental airport since the other airport's runway was too short to be used. Traffic at this airport gradually increased with both schedule and charter flights using this airport. Most domestic flights used Bromma airport but because certain domestic carriers require the use of the DC-9 which made quite a bit of noise, therefore these flights were operated out of Arlanda Airport instead. There were plans in 2014 to expand and improve the airport facilities by expanding terminal 5. The plan was to allow the largest commercial jets such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8 to operate from the newly constructed expanded part of the existing terminal. It is currently at work would completed a few years later. Currently, this airport has 4 terminals (Terminal 2 to Terminal 5). Some of you must be wondering, what happen to terminal 1? Well, I am not sure myself. Any readers would care to explain to us, can leave a comment here. That would be greatly appreciated. Airlines in which terminal (April 2016 update)Terminal 2 - International (Arlanda South)Air BerlinAir FranceBritish AirwaysBulgaria AirCzech AirlinesEasyjet Switzerland FinnairKLMNikiTerminal 3 - Regional (Arlanda South)Direktflyg operated by AIS airlinesNextjet DOT LT (Sparrow Aviation)Amapola (Sparrow Aviation)Terminal 4 - Domestic (Arlanda South)NextjetNorwegian Air Shuttle SASTerminal 5 - International (Arland South)AeroflotAeroflot operated by Rossiya AirlinesAegean AirlinesAir ChinaAir SerbiaAir Baltic AlitaliaAtlasGlobalAustrian AirlinesBelavia Blue AirCondorDelta AirlinesEmirates Ethiopian AirlinesEurowingsGermanwingsGermaniaIberia Express Icelandair Iran air Iraqi AirwaysJet TimeLOT Polish Lufthansa LuxairNextjet (operated by Carpatair)Norwegian Air ShuttleNovair Qatar AirwaysPegasus AirlinesRoyal Air MarocSASSunExpressTAP PortugalTaromThai AirwaysThomas Cook TULFly Nordic (Thomson Airways)Turkish AirlinesUkraine International United Airlines Vueling

SwissAir's Convair 990 (Coronado) - I wasn't born yet when this aircraft was in operation.

I spotted this VC-32 (Air Force 2) before at Changi Airport once!

Thai Airways' MD-11 in golden light = stunning!

SAS's Airbus A330-300 in Star Alliance livery preparing to take off

Near the airport there is this Jumbo Hostel (Ex-Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-200), I would love to visit one day. Here are some photos, thanks to the photographers from Airliners.net! You can make your reservation over this here

Interior of the Jumbo Hostel

Dining area at the nose of the aircraft (first level)

Cockpit suite (Isn't this cool?)

Relaxing area at the upper deck

Normal room

Here are the photos of the interior of the airport

This is the arrival hall, typical Swedish style interior.

7-Eleven convenient is almost everywhere!

Went outside to have a look, good weather that day.

Pick up point

Departure Hall (Land Side)

I went to do my check-in. I was told at London Gatwick airport that I needed to do a check in as they were not able to print the boarding pass for the 2nd leg, strange.

DY4291 was my flight, Blue1 and Finnair flights were heading the same way.

Interior of this airport looks pleasant

Self Check-in? Nah, I went to the counter instead to get the proper boarding pass

Queue up took around 10 minutes and after that I was on my way back to the air side.

After passing through immigration, I would experience Sky City!

Plane photography is possible at this airport

There are plenty of shops and cafes to check out

Quite a busy period and I spotted SAS's tails in the background. Can you recognise the aircraft types?

I spent around 1 hour at the air side checking it out before heading to the gate.

Route: ARN-HEL

Miles: 249

Fortunately for me, a different Boeing 737-800 flew me to Helsinki. I would be disappointed to be flying on the same aircraft as my previous flight.

My ride: LN-NOW

Date of departure: 30th May 2012

Airline: Norwegian Air Shuttle

Flight: DY4291

Route: ARN-HEL

Aircraft: Boeing 737-800

Registeration: LN-NOW (Leased from CIT)

Delivered: 11th August 2010

Configuration: Y186

Engines: 2 X CFM56-7B26

Aircraft name: Oda Krohg

Line number: 3364

Flight time: 50 minutes

Gate: 13A

Seat: 3A

Interior of Norwegian's Boeing 737-800 (Airliners.net photographers)

In-flight experienceBoarding the aircraft took place early and was once again greeted by enthusiastic crew. Seat 3A is usually business class row for premium airlines, so it was nice to to have a such a front row. Legroom space may have been slightly better than the rows behind, but the best thing about this flight, it was half full and I had the whole to row myself. It was only a 50 minutes ride to Helsinki so I had to enjoy as much as I can. For those enjoy flying like I do, 50 minutes ends very quickly especially on my flight, WiFi was available and the whole row for myself, as good as flying on business class I feel. As expected, the smooth ride went past very quickly and we landed early at Helsinki Airport. This sector was to be my last before my return flight to London with Finnair's Airbus A321. It was certainly money well spent and I would do it again the next time I am in Europe. You can check out my Finnair's trip report over here.

ConclusionNorwegian Air Shuttle is in the list of airlines I would fly again. 2 great flights with this carrier though the air ticket is slightly steep. I remember paying about 100 pounds for the one way ticket from London Gatwick to Helsinki via Stockholm. The currency rate to Singapore $$ is around $230 back then, so it wasn't exactly cheap. Flying out of London Gatwick is troublesome, still very much prefer London City Airport for European flights but limited airlines fly there. Stockholm's airport is a pleasant airport to transit, I would definitely do it again perhaps after visiting Copenhagen, it won't be that soon but definitely have plans for it in the near future. So if you are looking for a cheap and reliable Low Cost Carrier, Norwegian Air Shuttle is recommended. Thanks for reading! For my previous flight (part 1), click here.Cheers,Charles